Multimedia Gallery - First Place and People's Choice for Photography: Biomineral crystals found in a sea urchin tooth.

January 31, 2013

First Place and People's Choice for Photography: Biomineral crystals found in a sea urchin tooth.

Geologic or synthetic mineral crystals usually have flat faces and sharp edges, whereas biomineral crystals can have strikingly uncommon forms that have evolved to enhance function. The image here was captured using environmental scanning electron microscopy and false-colored. Each color highlights a continuous single-crystal of calcite (CaCO3) made by the sea urchin Arbacia punctulata, at the forming end of one of its teeth.

Credit: Pupa U.P.A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

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